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deadmandairyland · 2 months ago

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I always wondered if Naegi was ever close to his classmates or ever had close friends before the start of THH. And I don't mean friends such as like classmates he hangs out with or listens to, but friends who took the time to get to know him, his opinions, and his life.

We don't get much mention of any of his friends prior to THH. Any mentions of his life are usually about his family (how his mom would usually do his laundry, or wanting to have food with his family), his school (talking about how he lost his pin at one time, or how he took care of animals), and the amounts of food he loves on the daily (such as Dr. Popper, Tab Clear, Aussie Beef, etc). The short story for him does mention him having friends, but it seems to be more of just classmates that he doesn't engage outside of school, not like anyone he would happily remember or remark about in Ultra Despair Girls or any other material compared to Komaru's grief over her own friends' disappearances.

Of course, all of this could be reasoned out-of-game that Naegi's conception was kept vague to allow players to integrate with him, however, the kicker that made me go down this inquiry would be how he responds to Fujisaki in their final FTE.

The FTE that explicitly states Naegi's confusion on being focused upon in personal conversations.

This conversation had always intrigued me. It's one of the few times (other than Maizono) we get insight into how adamant Naegi gets over his own identity, and how confused he gets over people wanting to be close to him.

This is on the last FTE for Fujisaki, so at this point, he has had a good deal of interactions with the group, especially now that Maizono has died, so it's interesting that Naegi seems adamant on not wanting to be the focus of attention still during this point in time.

In fact, he seems even hesitant towards having a whole session just to talk about himself, and there's implication that when he does discuss with the gang during FTEs, that he mainly focuses on asking about them in-general. The idea of ever bringing himself up doesn't come to mind unless it flows into the conversation, since he doesn't think he's that interesting to begin with. And I really want to dissect that.

Because Naegi has had similar responses of deflection throughout the story. He sees himself as ordinary, normal, and someone who people might not find that interesting compared to others. He says to people like Fujisaki (and Kiyotaka, to some extent) he is the lowest rung of masculinity, that he mainly just watches TV, lies around, doesn't study much, etc. In fact, he puts himself down a lot to a strong degree, to the point Fujisaki can't help but ask if he himself also has an inferiority complex.

Now, culture-wise, this can be because Naegi is trying to be humble over any accomplishments since that's the social norm within Japan, and — despite the societal expectations — he doesn't see his normalcy as bad either. He has explained to Togami that he does appreciate normalcy, and that he finds joy in living a life he wants regardless if it's mundane. He may not have much idea of his future, but he sure will take it in stride.

Even with Fujisaki, we can see that he trudges through these insecurities by moving forward, and distracting himself from hits to his self-esteem, which can be healthy. Accepting life for what it is and finding the silver linings rather than sitting with emotions for a long time can be a good way of circumventing stress, and giving yourself the ability to keep moving forward regardless of insecurities.

Despite going to HPA and feeling insecure over his average status amidst Ultimates, it all sounds like it's a temporary type of insecurity, one that he will get used to as something present, yet one he can handle well over time.

However, we then find in the short story "Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever" that this painful awareness over how normal he is didn't start with being invited to the school. Actually, it's been there ever since he got reminded of it by his friends and family. He gets reminded that nothing about his identity is that special, and while he admits that he can't change it, he still doubles down on the idea that he is just that painfully normal.

Even with Maizono, he calls himself so normal that even normal people or I guess the concept of "normal" would call him boring, which is a lot of downplaying than the usual kind you would see in humble Japanese exchanges. Although in this situation, it is a bit more understandable due to her being his crush, and a pop idol.

Other than this massive downplaying, we also know that Naegi has had numerous times during the series where he beats himself up over stuff despite him acknowledging that he doesn't have control over the situation or the trajectory of his life.

An example would be continuously saying that his only redeeming quality is his optimism, or berating himself for getting emotional about his dead friends and forcing himself to move forward. In a killing game, it makes sense to be emotionally stressed out, but he never really gives himself that kindness to grieve or give himself a break since the goals he places for himself are all about how he can help the people around him.

In the DR the Animation, he does get some solace in his bathroom, but in the game itself, there were only two times where he almost cries, before immediately forcing it down to hone on the goal (such as Sayaka's examination) or getting distracted (being told he smells like garbage after being rescued from the garbage pit). Another example can be seen in DR3 the anime, where he does beat up his legs to stop them from shaking at a corpse, and trying to furiously wipe his tears in a secluded hallway after Kirigiri died, all so he can showcase a persona of a leader in a time of crisis.

Even in his character song "Kibō no Dangan", he spells it out that even if he's in immense suffering or not much of a talented person, he will do what he must to move forward, especially to save people (and when he means 'you', it's a safe bet that it's a reference to the first person he promised this to, being Sayaka).

While his philosophy of moving forward and throwing himself into work helps with distracting one's self from the cycle of insecurity and uncertainty, this doesn't stop him from making this coping mechanism into an unhealthy habit over time. Mainly that while he does have a lot more assertiveness in himself and what he wants (look at the two times he tried to physically beat up Monokuma, how he rejected Celeste's knight status in the FTEs, not wanting to chase down a robber, and every single instance with Hagakure's FTEs), the big thing is that he won't stop helping people.

He will never stop this inclination to give and give when it makes someone happy or listened to, and it makes me wonder if he ever had pre-HPA friends who ever looked out for him in return.

In the short story, the only time we ever get to see one of his so-called friends was him meeting at a park (with a whole bunch of that classmate's other friends he doesn't know), and then not being comforted by said friend as Naegi is tasked to get basically a whole gang's worth of food and drinks. Not even a helping hand or anything, and Naegi gloomily mentions the lack of comfort too as if it was a norm.

And the idea of him having to explain and apologize over to ten guys over what happened, even though his friend could definitely definitely vouch for his honesty if he even tried, just implies such a distant attitude. This isn't really someone Naegi internally knows he can confide in, and it makes it sound like he could do well in helping people, getting to know them on deep levels as a meaningful listener, but didn't really make connections that stayed with him for a long time.

Heck, he didn't even seem that sad over having to move away from the school, his family is mentioned more in misc location interactions than even one instance from that highschool.

He seems to have basically been an every man. If he did stick out to someone, it would be from him listening to their problems, for stuff that they need, to have someone they could talk about over the newest show, manga, or video game. Those interactions, of course, are valuable. There are friends who stay for a while, and some friends who can bond on only a few topics — after all, even with HPA, Class 78 has specific people who are closer than with others. But with how Naegi acts around people in the short story and THH, he values friendship, but he would prefer to be the vehicle of focusing on someone else rather than him.

You can see that this man, even when given a prompt all about Maizono asking about his dream, he completely redirects it back to her! It's incredible.

So then it makes this interesting contrast when you think about how Class 78 interacts with him as a whole. While a great deal of FTEs and interactions do have Naegi assisting or listening to others, his classmates seem to want to do more than just invite him into a space to listen to them.

They may all be eccentric, placed in a situation where they're forced to kill one another and be in paranoia, but there's these little glimpses of probably what life was like for Naegi during the HPA years.

He was with people who seemed interested in him too. He thinks he is average, but in a sea of ultimates, this makes even him stand out as someone to them. Sayaka even calls him remarking about his averageness as "strange", and this continued idea of Naegi being an enigma to people can also be found in the FTEs with Togami and Kirigiri.

Asahina even says he has this amazing ability of just going for it, and won't take his downplaying for an answer when he tries to do so. Due to their eccentric personalities, all of which go against the usual formalities in one way or another, it allows Naegi to be in this neat environment where people are just drawn to him.

Mondo asks him if he's a dog or cat person, and invites him to a bike ride when they leave HPA. Kiyotaka's ideals of wanting to work hard rather than be granted stuff from the get-go match his own, and he finds genuine value in being peers with Naegi. Asahina encourages him to workout with her and asks about his favorite foods. Kirigiri sees his optimism as a good thing, and finds him interesting to observe and ask questions to. Fujisaki too, before the inferiority complex discussion, genuinely got upset at the idea of never being able to learn about Naegi regarding his life and hobbies.

Maizono especially was someone who wanted to be his assistant, and his first friend. In retrospect, she probably would've been his first friend at HPA with how easily they connected due to their past school lives, and would've gotten him integrated into the class as a whole with how much she wanted to get to know him.

A very important thing too is that Maizono was the first person he felt comfortable and vulnerable around to say he is scared, that not only did Naegi save her, but Maizono's presence saved him as well. He usually keeps those types of thoughts to himself, so it's a big thing for him. He was that comfortable with her when times were tough, before he decided to push his fears down to hone in on the safety of other people.

There's these little pieces in these interactions where you can see how close and loved he was in this class, where there's people who genuinely wanted him in their lives, and valued him as a person rather than just a classmate who does errands willy nilly or a person who can fade into a crowd.

#dangan ronpa #makoto naegi #chihiro fujisaki #sayaka maizono

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